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Friday, January 9, 2015

Explore the Grand Canyon - right from your classroom

Grand Canyon National Park offers free distance learning programs for classrooms, including virtual field trips, lessons aligned to national and state standards, explorations and more. There are lesson resources and DVDs for loan to teachers.

The Grand Canyon National Park’s Distance Learning Program is a great resource for schools to let their students explore one of the most famous national landmarks.

The students get to talk with a park ranger online and learn all about the Grand Canyon.

Technology
provides students with virtual experience of the national park

GRAND
CANYON – Students
now have the opportunity to visit the iconic steep views of Grand Canyon
without ever leaving the comfort of their classrooms. All they need is
curiosity, Skype or an IP connection.

It
can be a major undertaking to physically bring students to the Grand Canyon.
But thanks to technology, classrooms everywhere can easily visit through Grand
Canyon National Park’s Distance Learning
Program.

In
2014, the free program reached about 4,000 students in 26 states.

“We
really can connect with just about anyone,” said Amala Posey, distance learning
coordinator for Grand Canyon National Park. “A lot of kids can’t get to the
Grand Canyon anytime soon, but we can bring the canyon to them.”

Posey
points out the curriculum is designed to complement what students are learning
in their classrooms, such as geology or ecology. “If you’re studying plate
tectonics, why don’t you use Grand Canyon as your subject matter?”

The
distance learning program produces curriculum-based education programs for
students, but is also used to connect with college students, nature centers and
adult learners. The program is used by K-12 students, and more specifically
those in third through sixth grade. Each program puts park rangers face-to-face
with students.

Eight
different programs are offered to schools, including the popular, “Ask a
Ranger,” session where students spend time with a ranger discussing Grand
Canyon ecology, geology and human history. Other sessions focus on ancient life
in the canyon, fossils, or summing up the last 12,000 years – in one hour.

A
recent session began with an aerial view of the canyon before taking students
inside. Rangers explained the canyon’s
rich history and moved down into the Colorado River, giving students the
experience of hitting rough rapids on a river trip.

The
Grand Canyon Association, the official
non-profit partner of Grand Canyon National Park, helped make the program a
reality, giving more than $100,000 to supply the technology that makes it all
possible.

“The
kids are sitting in New York and all of a sudden they’re 2,000 miles away at
the canyon and they say ‘ahhhhhhh’ when they first see it,” said Jacob Fillion,
branch chief for resource education and international program coordinator for
Grand Canyon National Park.

Past
classroom sessions included schools in Canada, Mexico and most recently,
Germany. The hope for the national park and Grand Canyon Association is to
expand the program to other countries worldwide.

Response
from students and teachers has been positive. One student convinced his family
to vacation at a national park after participating in a session. “That’s why we
are doing it,” Fillion said. “These kids are really connecting with the
national parks in their neighborhood.”

More
than 200 schools visit the Grand Canyon each year, and rangers travel all over
the state thanks to Grand Canyon Association funding. But the distance learning
program puts rangers and the canyon within reach of any classroom. You can
support this program and others that help Grand Canyon National Park at www.grandcanyon.org.

About the Grand Canyon
Association:

Founded
in 1932, the Grand Canyon Association (GCA) is the National Park Service’s
official nonprofit partner raising private funds to benefit Grand Canyon
National Park. The GCA operates retail shops and visitor centers within the
park and provides premier educational opportunities about the natural and
cultural history of the region. The GCA works to help preserve and protect
Grand Canyon National Park by cultivating support, education and understanding
of the park.

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